A clash is brewing over the name of a port in the Old City of Akko (Acre), on Israel's Mediterranean coast. On Tuesday, the municipality is slated to carry out a demolition order for an unauthorized memorial to an Arab jihad military hero.
After the port was formally renamed two months ago for sailor Ze'ev Fried, a pioneer in Jewish seamanship who was manager of the port, local Arab activists decided to give the port a different name. To give meaning to their protest, on Friday they illegally set up an independent memorial plaque honoring Isa Al-Awam, an officer under 12th century jihad commander Saladin (Salah al-Din). Akko Mayor Shimon Lankry gave the activists until Tuesday to remove the unauthorized memorial, before the municipality does so.
As soon as the response of the mayor was publicized Sunday, groups of young Arabs set up vigils at the Al-Awam memorial to prevent its removal and guard it from independent action by local Jews. The current confrontation comes just short of one year after mobs of Arabs ran rioting through Jewish neighborhoods in Akko. At the time, calling "Death to the Jews" and Allahu akbar ("Allah is great"), Arab rioters vandalized hundreds of Jewish-owned shops and vehicles, and threw rocks at people on their way to or from Yom Kippur prayers.
Local leaders of the Arab community, which makes up approximately 30 percent of the Akko population, expressed concern over what they called "an effort to Judaize the city." They decided to take action to commemorate the Arab history of the city by placing the Al-Awan memorial at the entrance to the Old City port.
In a statement, Akko's municipal government said:
"This is a serious incident which has the potential to cause unnecessary confrontation in the city. It is a private initiative of people whose identity is known, and they alone will bear personal responsibility, including criminal responsibility, insofar as the matter requires it. We are saddened that there are people who take advantage of any opportunity to damage coexistence and needlessly poison the atmosphere in the city. The city of Akko will not allow anyone, be they who they may, to take it upon himself to independently give names to sites, streets, buildings and the like without the permission of the proper authorities."
The memorial to Al-Awan, the municipality said, falls under the category of illegal and unauthorized construction. Therefore, the city issued a municipal demolition order and demanded that the memorial be removed immediately. The city has already requested police assistance in carrying out the demolition order.